Receive the latest ward-room updates in your inbox

Chicago's mayor and top cop attended a graduation ceremony for police officers who soon will be assigned to the front lines of the city's most violent neighborhoods. Charlie Wojciechowski reports. (Published Monday, April 21, 2014)

Chicago's second warm weekend of the season was marked with violence: Nine people were killed and at least 35 were injured in a series of mostly gang-related incidents.

"Unfortunately a bad week," Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said. "It doesn't wipe out what's happened over the past two years, but it certainly is a wake-up call that we have a lot of work to do."

At a Monday morning police graduation ceremony at Navy Pier, new officers who soon will be assigned to Chicago's 20 impact zones where gun violence is highest were told the city is ramping up resources to make the department ready for summer.

"For a community to be safe it's not just about policing," Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the new graduates. "It's not just about summer jobs, it's not just about after school which is necessary. It's also about not living by a code of silence but living by a moral code."

McCarthy, Emanuel Attend Police Graduation After Violent Weekend

Chicago's mayor and top cop attended a graduation ceremony for police officers who soon will be assigned to the front lines of the city's most violent neighborhoods. Charlie Wojciechowski reports.

As part of an expansion of the department's "Operation Impact" strategy launched last year, officers will patrol a larger area while remaining accessible to neighborhood residents.

Custom notifications were also put in place to identify people who are most likely to be involved in a retaliatory shooting and send a district commander and social services officer to knock on their doors.

Many of the new officers could be assigned to impact zones starting this week.